5of13Between 1974-75, San Francisco's gay community was terrorized by a man known as The Doodler. His disturbing M.O. was to create cartoons of patrons at gay bars, perhaps to draw their attention. After taking his victim to a more secluded location, he'd kill them. Contemporary estimates put the number of his victims at 16, although current guesses are closer to five or six.

Police believed they knew who was committing the murders. But, due to the social climate of the time, several witnesses declined to testify, fearing outing themselves. The murders remain officially unsolved.Photo: SFPD/Handout

6of13Kim Wendy Allen (above), a 19-year-old student at Santa Rosa Junior College, was one of seven women slain while hitchhiking along highways in and around Santa Rosa in the early 1970s.

The spree began in February of 1972 when Yvonne Weber and Maureen Sterling, both 13, were thumbing rides on Guerneville Road. The pair disappeared and their bones were found 10 months later in the hills outside Santa Rosa.

Over the course of the next 18 months, six more women went missing in the area, with five of their bodies found thrown on the side of Northern California roads or pitched down steep embankments. One victim was never found, but is presumed dead.

Though the causes of death in the cases were different -- two were strangled, one was bludgeoned, one was poisoned -- each of the women was last seen hitchhiking along deserted highways.

A number of suspects were investigated, including the Zodiac Killer and serial killer Ted Bundy, but police never made any arrests.Photo: Front Page Detective Magazine

7of13Kristen Modaferri was 18 years old when she went missing from her job at a coffee shop in the Crocker Galleria after clocking out on June 23, 1997. She told coworkers she was going to Lands End and was seen shortly after milling around in the mall, apparently waiting for someone. Bloodhounds tracked her scent twice in the Sutro Baths area, but lost it both times in a tunnel near the baths.

The most mysterious clue was a want ad found in her room. Police believe Modaferri herself placed the ad in the Bay Guardian a week before she disappeared. It read: “Friends. Female seeking friend(s) to share activities, who enjoy music, photography, working out, walks, coffee or simply exploring the Bay Area! Interested, call me."

Her parents continue to search for Kristen. Her disappearance spurred the creation of the National Center for Missing Adults in 2000; as an 18-year-old, child-search organizations were reluctant to advertise her disappearance and there were no state or federal funds to aid the search.Photo: Modafferi family, Charlotte Observer

8of13Kevin Collins was 10 when he disappeared off the streets of San Francisco in February 1984. His disappearance represented a turning point in abduction awareness.

Before he vanished, missing children were often classified as "runaways" or "off on a lark," but Kevin's disappearance prompted a massive search effort — including a nationwide distribution of flyers, pictures on milk cartons and pleas from local politicians. Such responses later became commonplace.

Though police at one point had a suspect in mind, a man seen chatting with Kevin on a doorstep near Oak and Masonic streets where he was last seen, the case remains baffling to police.

"This is a case that haunts the San Francisco Police Department and the city of San Francisco," then-police chief Greg Suhr said in 2013. "We carry it with us every day."Photo: Paul Sakuma, Associated Press 1984

9of13In what investigators called the most heinous crime in San Mateo's history, three employees at the Payless Super Drug store on Concar Drive were brutally murdered, the store was robbed and the perpetrators have been free for the years since Feb. 4, 1979.

That night, Michael Olsen and William Baumgartner were in the back office going through the day's receipts. That's where they were confronted by the killer, or killers, who shot them both in the head and made off with roughly $20,000.

Downstairs in a stockroom, Tracy Anderson armed himself with a horseshoe, perhaps having heard the gunshots. He was found by police shot in the back of the head, but still alive. He died later in a nearby hospital.

Though police interviewed a number of potential suspects, even arresting a former employee, George A. Bandy, who failed a polygraph test, they were never able to gather enough evidence to press charges. Police still consider Bandy their prime suspect.

"It's one of those cases that if you worked on it, it just doesn't go away," said Bob Luca, a Department of Justice investigator who worked on the case in its early days.Photo: Michael Macor

10of13Stop us if you know this one: A young woman pregnant in her third trimester goes missing until her body washes up from the bay. Laci Peterson’s case got all the attention — but another young woman like her also disappeared around the same time.

Evelyn Hernandez of San Francisco went missing in May 2002. Her five-year-old son disappeared at the same time; he remains missing. Police didn’t even hold a news conference until she’d been missing for over a month. Initially, they thought she’d left of her own accord to have her baby somewhere else, but her wallet was found in South San Francisco and then, in July, her torso washed up on the Embarcadero.

The father of Hernandez’s baby was a married man, but he was never named as a suspect. The case remains unsolved.Photo: HANDOUT

11of13On May 27, 1994, two days after her 14th birthday, Jenny Lin was discovered murdered in her Castro Valley home. The teen had last spoken with a friend that day around 5:15 p.m. When her father got home around 6:45, he found her body in the bathroom. She was partially nude and had been stabbed repeatedly.

Using search dogs, police tracked a scent across a field behind the home, but the trail went cold and police were left baffled.

Investigators briefly thought they had identified the culprit when a convicted murderer serving time in Oregon became their prime suspect, but the district attorney never filed charges.

The case remains open to this day.Photo: n

12of13The death of 17-year-old Kurt McFall of Concord became an international sensation when he was featured on the show "Unsolved Mysteries." McFall drove into San Francisco on September 8, 1984, and failed to return home after the weekend was over. His body was found at the bottom of a cliff near Lands End. Although the coroner ruled his cause of death as "unknown," McFall's father was convinced his son was murdered.

On "Unsolved Mysteries," McFall presents a case that his son was involved in a Satanic cult. He argues that his son was murdered by his fellow cult members when he decided to leave. Although police have declined to reopen the case, McFall's father continued to point to homicide.Photo: John King, The Chronicle

13of13The most infamous unsolved serial killing in Bay Area history is undoubtedly that of the Zodiac Killer. Although other serial killers were far more prolific, few have captured the public's attention like Zodiac.

He targeted mainly young couples, killing four women, two men (one who was a taxi driver in San Francisco) and injuring two more. But it was his distinctive and persistent letters to the press that gained him worldwide notoriety. His final letter to the Chronicle in 1974, praising the newly released movie 'The Exorcist,' was the last anyone heard from him.Photo: Bettmann/Bettmann Archive

A longtime Bay Area journalist and radio host last seen near a pizza parlor in Kentucky has been missing for two weeks, according to media reports.

Raphael “Ray” Taliaferro, who was a journalist and news anchor for San Francisco’s KGO-AM radio and KRON-TV, was last seen near a pizza parlor called “Mellow Mushroom” in Paducah, Kentucky, on Nov. 10, according to media reports.

A missing person’s flier posted by the Paducah Police Department stated he may have been experiencing “disorientation and signs of dementia,” according to a KRON 4 report.

Sheriff Ted Holder of the Massac County Sheriff’s Office in Illinois told The Chronicle that Taliaferro’s wife reported him missing around 9:30 a.m. in Massac County on Nov. 10. Around six hours later, witnesses told officials they saw him in Paducah, Kentucky, roughly 20 miles away, just over the state border.

Taliaferro’s vehicle was found in the parking lot of a bank in Paducah, Holder said. “Several people” told Paducah police they spoke with him that afternoon, but no one has seen him since, he said.

Holden said police have reached out to the Paducah chapter of the NAACP just in case Taliaferro calls association officials.

Officials with the Paducah Police Department could not immediately be reached for comment regarding Taliaferro’s disappearance.

Taliaferro helped found the National Association of Black Journalists in 1975 and was honored with the Black Chamber Life Award by the San Francisco Black Chamber of Commerce in 1994, according to the National Association of Black Journalists.

Lauren Hernández joined The San Francisco Chronicle in 2018. She covers crime, mayhem and breaking news. Previously, she was a breaking news reporter for the USA TODAY Network’s Statesman Journal in Salem, Oregon. She graduated from San Jose State University in 2015 with a bachelor’s of science in journalism and a minor in philosophy. She is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. She is also a licensed drone pilot through the Federal Aviation Administration.